Holiday closures and limited opening hours for Brent services - details

 

FURTHER INFORMATION ON BRENT COUNCIL SERVICES

Public, police and fire brigade mount rescue at Willesden High Road shop fire

Credit: Metropolitan Police

From Metropolitan Police

The bravery of two police officers, along with members of the public, has been lauded after they entered a burning building in Willesden High Road  to rescue occupants who were inside.

The incident unfolded at around 13:10hrs on Friday, 13 December after emergency services were called to reports of a fire in a three-storey building on High Road , NW10.

Officers were quickly on scene and immediately recognised the dangerous situation unfolding in front of them with smoke billowing from windows and reports of people still inside a flat on the first floor.

Two officers, along with members of the public, entered the building and made their way up to the first floor. They directed residents out of the building but were alerted to a man who was trapped in an upstairs flat. Utilising a ladder located in a courtyard area at the back of the building, a member of the public managed to break a window and help the man escape.

Thankfully no-one was seriously injured although three residents and one of the officers, who is aged in his 20s, were taken to hospital for treatment due to the effects of smoke inhalation. One officer remains in hospital and all are expected to make a full recovery.

The officers are being supported following the ordeal.

Commander Paul Trevers said: 

 

The actions of these officers exemplifies the qualities that runs through the core of our officers in the Met police – bravery, tenacity and above all a desire to keep the public safe when faced with danger.

Confronted with a terrifying situation and knowing that people were at risk they did not hesitate in going into that building to protect the lives of others. I am immensely proud of their actions as I’m sure all Londoners will be.

I would also like to praise the courage of the members of the public who, alongside our officers, helped ensure the safety of those inside the building.

 

Credit: London Fire Brigade

From London Fire Brigade

Eight fire engines and around 60 firefighters tackled a fire at a shop with flats above on Willesden High Road. 

Part of the ground floor and a small part of the ceiling void between the ground and first floors were alight. Firefighters rescued two people from a roof using a short extension ladder. Five further people left the property before the Brigade arrived and were taken to hospital by London Ambulance Service crews.

The Brigade's 32-metre turntable ladder was used at the scene as an observation platform. 

Station Commander Chucks Abili, who was at the scene, said: 

Crews worked hard to access the voids and bring the fire under control.

The fire was producing heavy smoke, so we advised local residents keep their windows and doors closed.

Willesden High Road was closed between Bertie Road and Hawthorn Road and we encouraged people to avoid the area during the afternoon, particularly as rush hour approached.

The Brigade's Control Officers took the first of eight calls to the fire at 1308 and mobilised crews from West Hampstead, Park Royal, North Kensington, Kentish Town and Wembley fire stations to the scene. The fire was under control by 1521.

 

How Brent MPs voted on the Assisted Dying Bill

 Dawn Butler (Brent East) and Barry Gardiner (Brent West) voted against the Bill and  Georgia Gould (Queens Park and Maida Vale) voted for the Bill.

Does London Mayor's new guidance on purpose built student accommodation address recent concerns in Brent?

 Marketing  video for purpose built student accommodation in Wembley Park

 

There has recently been discussion about the amount of purpose built student accommodation in Brent, with some disquiet even in the Brent Planning Committee. (See LINK) Rather than reflecting an anti-student prejudice it is often about the loss of sites that could otherwise be used for family housing and questions about balancing local communities.

Brent planners have insisted that the need for student accommodation both in Brent and London as whole has been established and contributes to housing targets,

The London Mayor has recently published London Plans guidance for London local planning authorities which reviews some of the issues. The full document can be found HERE and key extracts follow (my highlighting):

 

The Purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) London Plan Guidance (LPG) provides advice on how to apply London Plan Policy H15 to best meet London’s needs. This guidance applies to a specialist form of housing designed and managed for students. This typically comprises a mixture of flats for 6-8 students with shared living spaces, and larger studio flats, plus additional communal social spaces and other facilities.

As well as providing students with a place to live, PBSA can play an important role in alleviating pressures on the wider private rental sector. Indirectly its provision also helps underpin London’s higher education sector as a global player, and the wider knowledge economy of the city.

The LPG sets out detailed advice on siting, designing and developing such housing, including balancing it with other housing types. It aims to ensure that these developments are designed and managed to be of good quality, safe and inclusive and integrated into their neighbourhood. The guidance is aimed at those designing PBSA schemes and decision-makers assessing them as part of the planning application process.

 

London’s universities are disproportionately concentrated in a few areas, including within the CAZ (Central Activity Zone) . PBSA (Purpose Built Student Accommodation) has clustered in similar areas, particularly in inner London. This has diversified the student accommodation offer from the traditional, university-built PBSA, and private rented homes. Several boroughs where this is the case have sought to limit further growth in such (purpose built) student accommodation, as well as in some cases, HMOs Homes of Multiple Occupation). This reflects their concerns about housing mix in their neighbourhoods and the potential ‘crowding out’ of conventional housing, given other types of housing need amongst their population. However, in turn, other boroughs (including within outer London, some distance from where London’s universities are concentrated) have since seen a particularly high influx of PBSA schemes, giving rise to similar concerns.

 

PBSA in relation to neighbourhood housing mix can be considered in two ways:

 

• In support of PBSA proposals that help disperse from traditional concentrations to alternative, suitable locations – perhaps adding an element of student housing to existing residential stock that is primarily conventional housing. This may be particularly relevant where there is a shortage of family homes, which students are currently occupying as HMOs or which they could be in future, in light of PBSA shortages.

 

• As a more negative consideration, where there are long-standing or more recent concentrations of PBSA, or similar, non-self-contained accommodation, relative to conventional housing. This may be spatial (in particular neighbourhoods) or as a proportion of housing delivery, where PBSA may be considered to be ‘crowding out’ conventional housing schemes. Such dominance may be particularly acute under certain market conditions; and where development sites are limited (which would ordinarily be equally attractive for conventional residential use).

 

PBSA should form part of a wider positive strategy in delivering mixed and inclusive neighbourhoods in most Local Plans. It should be acknowledged that what is considered an appropriate balance of PBSA and conventional housing will differ across London, and within boroughs. Local Plans should identify if and where spatial concentration of PBSA, or proliferation of PBSA delivery compared to conventional housing delivery, is impacting the ability to ensure mixed and inclusive neighbourhoods. They should also identify more positive opportunities for PBSA to help contribute to local and strategic objectives.

This could be used to develop spatial policies; or to indicate the significance of neighbourhood or pipeline housing mix in decision-making.

 

BREAKING: BRENT COUCIL HAS REACHED AGREEMENT WITH LIME BIKES ENABLING THEM TO CONTINUE TO OPERATE IN BRENT

 

Lime bikes outside St Andrew's Church, Church Lane, Kingsbury

From Brent Council

Lime has agreed to invest hundreds of thousands of pounds in the creation of hundreds of bike parking bays across Brent, as part of a comprehensive plan to tackle residents’ safety concerns.

 

The bike hire company was in the limelight after Brent warned that the dockless e-bikes would need to be removed from the borough if a number of concerns were not addressed by 31 October.

 

A plan to improve the way the bike rental service operates in Brent has now been negotiated following a series of constructive meetings, with a new operating model to begin immediately.

 

 Lime Bike parking bay (not in Brent)

 

Under the new plan, which was launched today Lime will:

 

• Introduce and fund the creation of 200 new parking bays, in priority areas. These designated parking bays will be implemented and enforced in phases. All locations will be added before July 1 2025.
• Immediately reduce the size of its fleet in Brent by a third - from 750 to 500 bikes - while these other improvements are made, and consult closely with the council before increasing bike numbers again.
• Introduce zoning changes that prevent the parking of bikes in areas where parking has frequently been poor.
• Introduce automatic ‘slow zone’ speed controls in busy hotspots such as around Wembley Stadium and Wembley High Road, as well as a dedicated events plan for the stadium with the council.
• Increase the number of Lime cyclist patrollers and parking wardens on-the-ground in Brent by 78%, ensuring that any issues reported can be dealt with quickly.
• Remove inappropriately parked bikes within 2 hours of being reported via a newly created email.
• Reinvest the fines from poor parking back into the local community through the council’s Together Towards Zero grant scheme.
• Launch a new resident cycling forum to meet on a quarterly basis and provide a cycle training session each month for Brent residents.

 

Councillor Krupa Sheth, Cabinet Member for Environment and Enforcement, said: 

 

Since raising our concerns with Lime earlier this year, we've spent considerable time at the table with them, communicating residents' issues, outlining our expectations, and closely reviewing their proposals.

 

We’ve squeezed a number of really important improvements out of Lime, and it is welcome that they have listened to residents’ feedback and are taking immediate steps to change.

 

This council supports active travel, but safety is non-negotiable. We hope that we have turned a corner with Lime and expect residents to see real, noticeable improvements from now on. We will hold Lime to these new commitments to ensure they are honoured.

 

Hal Stevenson, Director of Policy at Lime, UK, said: 

 

We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Brent Council to continue offering our service to the tens of thousands of residents that rely on us daily across the borough.

 

Over the past two months, we’ve collaborated closely with the Council to establish an action plan that will deliver immediate, on-street improvements, while also funding the creation of a new network of mandatory parking locations by July 1. 

 

Our significant investment in this network demonstrates our commitment to working alongside Brent to provide long-term solutions that address community concerns, while continuing to support their efforts to ensure more journeys in the Borough are taken by bike.

 

We are listening to our Council partners and taking action to manage the record demand for our e-bikes responsibly.

 

Residents should report badly parked bikes to Lime directly on their website or through their App or alternatively through a new email Brent@li.me or by calling 0800 808 5223.

 

Average Brent rent has rise by more than a third since 2023

According to My London Office of National Statistic data shows that Brent has seen the steepest rise in rents over the past 12 months of any local area in England or Wales.

The average rent is now £2,121 per month - a rise of 33.6% since 2023. This compares with a London average rise of 9.6%.

Private rents in Brent soar 33.9% in a year ONS statistics show

Source

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for the period to June 2024 show that since June 2023 there has been a 33.9% increase in private rents in the borough.

 

This compares with a maximum increase of 3.8% (for flats) in houses purchases over the 12 month period.

 The latest statistics confirm the problem that Brent Council faces due to the rise in private sector rents when looking for accommodation for homeless families.

They also challenge the claim that the increase in the number of built to rent homes in the borough, let at market rents, will via market pressures reduce rents overall.

On the basis of house prices there appears to  be an economic case for owers of detached houses to convert their property into flats as we have seen in corner site properties in the Salmon Street area of Kingsbury.

Glitch in Brent Council 'Find your polling station software'

 There appears to be a problem with the Brent Council website Find Your Polling Station LINK

A resident fills in their postcode for Gorefield House

 The resident is given the polling station address Hornbill House, 2 Rudolph Road

But when clicking on 'Show me directions' is directed to William Dunbar House

This is the actual location of Hornbill House

Best to double check when using the site.

Labour urged to 'get a grip on the unrelenting cladding horror show'

 The cladding crisis has hit properties in Brent (see LINK) and End Our Cladding Scandal  has been in the forefront of the campaign to achieve justice for the occupants of affected buildings along with Brent Cladding Action Group.

End Our Cladding Scandal has recently issued a statement LINK calling for a stronger commitment from Labour on the issue:

Since the Grenfell catastrophe in 2017, we have welcomed the support from Labour MPs – whether that given to individual leaseholders or the Shadow Housing team’s ongoing engagement with our campaign. This included commitments made by Sir Keir Starmer in 2021 and the plan to create a “Building Works Agency” to solve the building safety crisis if Labour was re-elected – a plan which we helped to shape.

In October last year, Labour’s full final policy platform explicitly stated that “Leaseholders should be protected from the costs of remediating cladding and non-cladding defects in all buildings irrespective of circumstances.” Labour’s manifesto now only states that it will “review how to better protect leaseholders from costs and take steps to accelerate the pace of remediation across the country” and that there must be a “renewed focus on ensuring those responsible for the building safety crisis pay to put it right.”

We expected Labour’s manifesto to be high level; however, we are disappointed to not see more than this.

Labour may wish to restore the dream of home ownership to 1.5 million people across the country. But, right now, an estimated 600,000 people are trapped in unsafe flats with their dreams and futures ruined. The pace of remediation remains glacial with millions of leaseholders unable to sell and move on with their lives. Buildings insurance is also still a mess. Last April, Shadow Housing Minister, Matthew Pennycook recognised that ordinary people “have been struggling with the eye-watering cost” for years and that we “need ministers to act decisively to drive those costs down not yet more procrastination and tinkering around the edges.” He said that Labour would “look to quickly establish a risk-pooling scheme with government backing” – will a Labour government back the ABI’s Reinsurance Facility in the first 100 days if it wins the election?

We want, need and deserve to have firm commitments with a clear timeline to fix all buildings, ensure residents are and feel safe, and protect all leaseholders – all of whom are innocent and are still shouldering a desperately unfair burden. We have shown Labour how to do this at a meaningful pace and with visible grip in our manifesto.

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 Report will be published on 4^th September and we expect this to spell out how successive governments played a huge part in causing this crisis by focusing on the interests of industry over residents and enabling decades of bad practice across the construction sector. We note that the National Audit Office is due to report on the pace of remediation in Autumn and this should add pressure on the next government to get a grip of this unrelenting horror show.

In recent years, we have worked with the Government, the Health and Safety Executive’s Building Safety Regulator, Homes England, the Leasehold Advisory Service, and many other stakeholders to hold them to account and set out how the building safety crisis can be fixed. Whichever party forms the next government must show the political will to deliver a much fairer and faster end to the building safety crisis. Labour’s manifesto is titled Change – we need details on how they will change the current ineffective approach to making homes safe. Fire won’t wait and neither can we.

Sufra's activities reviewed and the need for a fair and humane asylum system

I have just received Sufra Food Bank's latest Newsletter and am sharing the extracts below:

 

The UK has long been stuck in a ‘doom loop’ of poverty, with one in five households with children now going without meals and 11 million people experiencing food insecurity. An utterly shameful situation in one of the world’s richest counties.   Charities like Sufra can’t take the state’s place in providing basic economic security for local people – especially those experiencing hunger and deprivation. But in the absence of adequate statutory support, Sufra – like many other charities – have had little choice but to step in to fill the void.  We’ve just been crunching the numbers: the last financial year was unprecedented in terms of demand, innovation in our services, and the scale of our work.   You can read a short blog about all we did last year here, but below are a few key facts and figures to give you a flavour of what’s been happening at Sufra between April 2023 and March 2024:   We distributed almost 10,000 food parcels at our Food Banks, served around 19,000 people freshly cooked hot meals at our Community Kitchens, and facilitated over 3,000 shopping trips at our Community Shop.  We expanded our Welfare Advice Team, supported nearly 500 guests with professional advice (including many asylum seekers, refugees and migrants), and applied for OISC accreditation so that we can provide immigration advice (coming soon!).    We established a successful new Community Wellbeing Project with a community shop, café and comprehensive wrap around support. We even launched a Toolkit to encourage the programme to be replicated in other parts of the UK.   St. Raphael’s Edible Garden has been in full bloom. We harvested 3/4 of a tonne of fruit, vegetables and nuts – and distributed much of this at our weekly Garden Market, which saw 361 visits throughout the year.   We recruited 205 inspiring new volunteers who gave up 13,000 hours of their time to support members of their community across all of our services – from Food Aid and the Garden to Advice and even Admin.    As you can see, we have been focused on establishing holistic programmes that help prevent poverty and reduce demand for emergency food aid.   But none of this would have been possible without the support of our generous donors, supporters and inspiring volunteers – people like you! So, on behalf of everyone at Sufra, please accept our heartfelt gratitude for helping us achieve all that we did.

Calling for a Fair and Humane Asylum System

The theme for this year’s Refugee Week (17-23 June) is ‘Our Home’ – a theme that resonates deeply with Sufra’s values and our work. If you’ve ever visited Sufra, you will know that our advice guests can access a welcoming community space, fresh food, and tailored professional support - which will soon include accredited immigration advice.   In recent months, Sufra’s Advice Team has been overwhelmed by the huge rise in homelessness among our refugee guests. Across London, refugee homelessness has increased by a shocking 239%.

What’s the issue?

Upon receiving refugee status, asylum seekers are served eviction notices and given just 28 days to find alternative accommodation – many have been given as little as 7 days.   Given that they have no income, savings or employment at that point, most end up homeless and without any adequate support, which inevitably leads to destitution and distress.

What can you do?

Please bear this crisis in mind when considering the upcoming election - we all need to hold policymakers to account for policies such as these that directly impact our guests at Sufra.   You can also support this campaign by the Refugee Council, calling on the UK Government to treat people fairly and with dignity when they arrive in the UK.   If you would like to support the work of Sufra’s brilliant Advice Team directly, you can contribute to our Emergency Aid Fund here, which we often use to provide emergency accommodation and other essentials for those experiencing homelessness.

Support Sufra’s Emergency Aid Fund here

Byron Court strikes against forced academisation continue on Friday and subsequent weeks

 From Brent National Education Union

 

NEU members at Byron Court Primary School are striking again in a fight to save their local community school which is threatened with a forced privatisation by the huge Harris Federation chain of academies. PICKET LINE OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL FRIDAY 14^th JUNE 7.30-9.30am! [Subsequent dates: 18^th/19^th June, 25^th/27^th June and 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th July]

 

Staff at Byron Court Primary School in Wembley continue to strike to save their local community school from a forced “academy order” following an intimidating Ofsted inspection. They are striking  following their protest, alongside parents and the NASUWT outside the DfE last week in which a petition of over 2000 signatures was handed over, supported by Barry Gardiner, the constituency Labour Candidate.

 

THE NEU HAVE YESTERDAY LAUNCHED A “GO YELLOW” CAMPAIGN ACROSS ALL BRENT SCHOOLS in which staff are asked to wear yellow or black as an act of solidarity with striking members at Byron Court. Yellow and black are the current Byron Court uniform colours and the campaign is launched on the day that Harris Federation are forcing their way into the school to “consult” pupils on a new uniform.

 

Staff have today heard that the proposed TUPE consultation will not conclude until AFTER the general election, bringing real hope that the incoming Secretary of State will pause this forced academisation process.

 

Jenny Cooper of the NEU national executive has stated:

 

Forced academisation is a process opposed by most education unions and flies in the face of democracy; this should not happen in a civilised society. We call on all political parties to reverse this policy if elected and to start by intervening to save Byron Court